By the deadline (February 16) for submission of paper proposals for the 1999 CLTA conference, the program committee had received 30 panel proposals and 37 individual proposals, plus a number of special mini workshops and session requests. The total number of proposals now is as high as 185! The enthusiasm of our CLTA members is truly inspiring. In the next few weeks, the program committee will work to reduce the number to fit into the 20 sessions allocated by ACTFL. At this moment, I would like to offer a glimpse of some of the topics that will be presented at the November conference.
The major theme that emerges this year is research on second language acquisition and teaching materials and methods for advanced Chinese. Last year saw some papers dealing with advanced Chinese and this year, more papers in this area were received. The increasing interest in upper level Chinese language courses brings into focus the urgent need of teaching materials, techniques and new approaches. The issue of how to bridge the gap between intermediate and advanced level was also a prominent theme.
Technology is again a popular theme. We will have panels and individual papers discussing new computer programs aiding students to learn characters, and multimedia courseware for teaching intermediate Chinese. In addition to presenting new CALL material, there will be in-depth discussion on theories of and approaches to using of technology. With more and more universities using computers to teach Chinese, there will also be discussion on creating a new type of course incorporating technology in language instruction.
In addition to the above-mentioned topics, there are also some other interesting proposals. They cover a wide range of issues from the debate on fluency versus accuracy, new means of testing and assessment, the management of overseas Chinese programs to the role of culture and the teaching of classical Chinese.
With a large amount of quality paper proposals but a limited number of allocated session slots, the review committee members sometimes have no choice but to "ren-tong-ge-ai" ( ÈÌ Í´ ¸î °® ). They understand that this will inevitably cause inconvenience and disappointment among contributors, but this has to be done. We hope that in the year 2000 the current situation can be improved and more sessions will be accommodated.
We look forward to seeing you in Dallas!
Tianwei Xie